SALE: Contemporary Art at Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips de Pury, and Bonhams
LOCATION: London, U.K.
DATES: February 13-16 (See detail below)
It will be another hectic week of sales in London as Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Phillips de Pury, and Bonhams vie for the attention of the art world. The offerings are dominated by a troika of European contemporary artists: Gerhard Richter, Francis Bacon, and Lucien Freud. Yet while the European names top the estimates, it wouldn't be worth having a contemporary sales week without the big American post-war war horses, so the auction houses have also hunted down a few Warhols and Lichtensteins, as well as the first major Mark Rothko painting to hit the auction block in a decade, according to Christie's.
The Christie’s sale has the highest estimates by far. For weeks the auction house has been promoting its two most valuable works, Bacon’s "Portrait of Henrietta Moraes" (1963) and Rothko's orange-hued "Untitled." Estimates for both are "on request," and according to Christie’s in the region of £18 million for the former and £9-12 million for the latter. The Bacon work is one of seven large paintings he executed in the year after his breakthrough Tate show in 1962. It features a woman reclining on a pristine white bed, surrounded by vibrant red and purple in the background. The auction house also has high hopes for one of the many of Richter's "Abstraktes Bild" series to go under the hammer this week. The 1994 canvas blends blues, greens, and purples into dreamy abstraction.
On Wednesday, Lucien Freud gets his own dedicated sale at Christie's. The auction house will sell 44 of the artist's etchings, with estimates ranging from £6,000-70,000.
Later Wednesday, the action at Sotheby's begins. The top-end of estimates are not nearly as high as at Christie's, but as last November's New York sales showed, that could be an advantage. According to the pre-sale calculations, there may not even be a work that breaks the £5 million mark. Another "Abstraktes Bild" (1992) by Richter featuring stripes of black and white pulsating across the canvas is estimated to fetch £3-4 million. The fate of the sale really rests on the buoyancy of Richter's market, as the top five include three other paintings by the German: a red "Abstraktes Bild" (1991), estimated to sell for £2.5-3.5 million, the photorealistic 1981 canvas "Eis (Ice)" (est. £2-3 million), and the 1989 "Kind (Child)" (est. £2-3 million), which features colorful globs of paint dripping down a pure white background.
The only non-Richter painting to break into the Sotheby's top five is the colorful and lively "Orange Sports Figure" by Jean-Michel Basquiat (1982). However, the Sotheby's catalogue seems to have subtly higher hopes for the Basquiat than its modest estimate, drawing comparisons to "Shot Orange Marilyn" (1962), which almost quadrupled its presale estimate in 1998 to reach a then record of over $17 million.
Bonhams and Phillips are both having small sales with less than 40 works each. At Phillips, look out for the Lucio Fontana's 1960 work that once was in the private collection of Andy Warhol, "Concetto Spaziale, Attese." At Bonhams, the most valuable offering of its fledgling contemporary department is Frank Auerbach's 1960 charcoal piece, "Head of Lucian Freud."
CONTEMPORARY SALES:
Sale: Contemporary One Evening Sale
Location: Bonhams London
Date: February 13, 7 p.m.
Sale: Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale
Location: Christie's London
Date: February 14, 7 p.m.
Sale: The Painter's Proof: Etchings by Lucien Freud
Location: Christie's London
Date: February 15, 10 a.m.
Sale: Contemporary Art Evening Sale
Location: Sotheby's New York
Date: February 15, 7 p.m.
Sale: Contemporary Art Evening Sale
Location: Phillips de Pury London
Date: February 16, 7 p.m.
OTHER INTERNATIONAL SALES:
Sale: Fine Furniture and Decorative Arts
Location: Leslie Hindman Chicago
Date: February 12-14, 12 noon (each day)
Sale: Dogs in Show & Field: The Fine Art Sale
Location: Bonhams New York
Date: February 15, 10 a.m.